I've had similar feelings as this chap too, even before reading (as I think we all have had). It has been rather depressing 'round West Ham these days.

My son - he's five - knows my team is "West Ham," or as he puts it, the "purple team with the hammers." And, bless him, he says that's his team because it's my team.

So the other night we were talking about "soccer," as this is going to be his first season playing. He asked if he is going to play for the "purple team" too. I said no, that's another team, that's just the team we cheer for, and that he will be playing with some other kids, probably in a different colour for now.

I then said, You'll probably want a different team to cheer for anyway pal.

He asked, Why?

I told him that the people that own the team and run the team aren't being very nice at all to the people who go to cheer for the team, and it has upset a lot of people who really love going there to cheer the team, so the people that used to cheer don't want to go there anymore, and it's all because some people thought too much about themselves were too greedy.

He paused for a minute, and, no word of a lie, looked up at me, straight in the eye, and said, "You need to go there to tell them who's boss."